Saturday, August 10, 2013

Masonry

Well, got back from visiting my Uncle, and that was a great
meet. It always is good to see him. He is the younger brother of my Dad (RIP) and
these two men were leaders in their communities.

It was a bit poignant, for my Uncle is selling his lovely
home and taking his wife to move permanently to FLA,
to be among all their grandkids.

Being in their 70’s it’s a bit much to keep both homes
running.

No, he was not rich.
He was simply smart with money.

The reason that I am telling you this is that he wanted to
know if I had any interest in his workshop.

Indeed.

He had grown another collection of tools he’d gotten down
theyah in FLA from every craft
that he had learned (and taught himself) in his life.

Now, when you happen across an estate sale from a man, you
may find a treasure of such instruments, and hopefully, you have liquid money
for the auction.

This was offered to me for free, and also to my sistahs.

Who are married.

I could not visit him last weekend due to tribal matters,
but the other men could.

In telling him this a month ago, he said, “It’s only fair to
offer First Dibs to those who can come.”

I agreed. I also told
him that, “I don’t need anything from you in order to visit you every time you
come up from Florida. The only
thing I want is to hear you talk about our family’s past.”

I asked him only to set aside the garden implements that his
son (my cousin) and I had used to work his mother’s farm back when we made 50
cents per hour, from her.

They were family heirlooms of a sort, since they had been in
the family for a hundred years. These
were worn about the edges (spades that looked like large, pitted rose petals,
and hoes that looked much the same).

Good enough for the likes of me.

I brought my wife and Dotta there, (Son was doing his thing)
when we visited today, and just got back from Topsham.

I held no ill will for none of those men, my sister’s
husbands for doing what I would have.